Survey: This is the best city for buying your first house in 2018

Buying a home can be exciting and scary. WalletHub analyzed 300 cities and Broken Arrow, Okla. came out on top as the best city to purchase a first home.

Buying a first home can be an exciting milestone in one’s life. It can also be very stressful and scary.

WalletHub analyzed 300 American cities in terms of “real-estate market,” “affordability” and “quality of life” and then broke down those factors further in terms of 27 other “metrics” and used data from the U.S. Census Bureau, before eventually giving each city a “total score” of 100.

And the winner is … Broken Arrow, Okla. came out on top as the best city to purchase your first home in 2018.

Here are the 10 best cities to buy your first house

Here’s the breakdown:

1) Broken Arrow, OK (total score: 67.09)

2) Tampa, FL (total score: 65.79)

3) Centennial, CO (total score: 64.74)

4) Boise, ID (total score: 64.69)

5) Grand Rapids, MI (total score: 64.65)

6) Thornton, CO (total score: 64.49)

7) Frisco, TX (total score: 64.26)

8) McKinney, TX (total score: 64. 26)

9) Cary, NC (total score: 64.03)

10) Gilbert, AZ (total score: 63.98)

The city of Berkeley, CA (#300) rounded out the bottom of the total list with a total score of 35.96.

The research also ranked each city in terms of size — “large,” “midsize” and “small”: Tampa, FL was the #1 large city (65.79), Boise, ID was the #1 “midsize” (64.69) and Broken Arrow, OK was the #1 small city (67.09).

How the cities compare to each other

You’ll notice that all of the least affordable housing options on the list are located in California.

When buying your first home, look for an area with these features

Sriram Villupuram, an associate professor of finance and real estate at the University of Texas at Arlington, told the site about what people purchasing their first homes should seek in a location.

“Liquidity. First-time home buyers tend to be young and are eventually going to upgrade to a larger home. Therefore they should be able to sell their home with ease in the near or distant future. Neighborhoods with a well-rated school district would be a good place to start,” he told WalletHub.